This page is designed to answer some of your questions about the next stage of the admissions process. If you have any other questions which are not answered by looking at this information, do not hesitate to email admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk
General information for incoming students is available on the University website at http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/info/newugs.html which has a link to the Cambridge Student Gateway
The following information is specific to Christ's College and you can jump to the following sections using these links:
Fees and Finance
Copies of your Examination Certificates
Support for Students with Disabilities
Accommodation
A Level and other Examination Results
Date of Arrival in Cambridge
Cambridge Term Dates
College Codes of Practice and Policies
Change of Course
IT and Email provision
Motor Vehicles
Electrical Equipment
Fees and Finance
If you did not complete and return a Fee Status form at the time of your original application or subsequently, please download, complete and return the form now, along with a copy of your passport or other documentation to prove your fee status. Receipt of the completed form and a copy of your passport helps us to determine your eligibility for support from Student Finance England (or other awarding body) whether you intend to apply for a loan or not.
For students resident in the UK or another EU country, you should check the information available at Directgov and register accordingly. Use the term dates given on the University website when completing forms. If asked for the length of the academic year, answer "not less than 25 weeks 3 days". Last year the Student Finance England deadline for receipt of new students’ applications was 30 May 2014. For Student Finance Wales the deadline was 16 May 2014 and for Student Finance Northern Ireland last year it was 11 April 2014.
After you apply to your Student Finance body you will receive a package containing various documents. English, Northern Ireland and Welsh students: you need to send the College a copy of the document “Your Student Finance Breakdown”, we do not need copies of any other pages. You should attach this to your completed Financial Guarantee Declaration (see below) and return both of them to the Admissions Office. Scottish students: please include a copy of your “Awards Notice” (both pages). Please be aware that students are often targeted with phishing emails around this time of year.
Students reading Medical Sciences or Veterinary Medicine should state the duration of their course as 6 years. Students who expect during their Cambridge course to read Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Chemical Engineering, Engineering, Mathematics, Modern Languages, or Natural Sciences should state the duration of their course as 4 years even though in the event it may only be 3 years.
As a "Home" or "EU" student, the University tuition fee that you will be liable for in the academic year 2015-16 is likely to be £9,000. Inflationary increases are anticipated in subsequent years. If you cannot prove eligibility for a student loan, you will be required to pay an additional College fee (£6,800 for 2015-16). If you do not intend to take out a loan (see Directgov) you must complete and return a Fee Status form (if you have not already done so) with supporting documentary evidence such as a copy of your passport in order to prove that you are an "eligible student".
Financial Guarantee Declaration
All students for 2015 entry must complete and return a Financial Guarantee Declaration form; there is a different form for UK/EU students and Overseas students. The deadline for reciept of this form is 1st August 2015 although it's helpful if you can get the completed form back to us as soon as possible.
Information about Cambridge fees and finance can be found here and information about the Cambridge Bursary scheme may be found here.
Those whose places are confirmed following the publication of exam results will find a bill for their tuition fees, accommodation etc. waiting for them on arrival. This bill should be settled within 14 days of the start of term.
Examination Certificates
You will remember that in your offer letter we asked you to send us ‘your examination certificates relating to the examinations referred to on your UCAS application’. The following information relates to offer-holders who do not require a visa to study in the UK:
If you have not already done so, please photocopy your documents (see below for details) and ask someone at your school to sign or stamp the copies to certify that they are true copies of the originals. These copies can either be scanned and sent by email (admissions@christs.cam.ac.uk) or you can send the hard copies by post (Admissions Office, Christ's College, St Andrew's Street, Cambridge CB2 3BU). All documents should be received by 28 February.
(It's likely that non-UK offer-holders who need a visa to study in the UK will be asked to send original certificates - more information will follow as soon as it becomes available.)
GCSEs
If you have taken GCSEs or IGCSEs, please send certified copies of your certificates showing the grades achieved for each subject.
GCE AS and A Levels
For each completed AS or A Level please send certified copies of your certificates showing the grades achieved for each subject.
UMS
For each module you have taken please send either:
- a certified copy of your 'Statement of Results' from the exam board showing the UMS
- a certified copy of your 'Statement of Results' from the school's own system showing the UMS
- a letter from the school listing the UMS scores
unless you have already done so.
Other Qualifications (excluding non-academic qualifications)
Please send a certified copy of any other examination certificates showing the results achieved for academic qualifications mentioned on your UCAS application.
Please send these documents by 28 February.
Support for Students with Disabilities
The College and University work together to provide whatever support is necessary to students with disabilities. If you have a disability which you did not disclose at the point of application, please download, complete, and return this form.
Accommodation
The College provides accommodation for all of its undergraduates for the full duration of the course for which they have been admitted. You do not need to apply for accommodation: it will be allocated to you automatically for your first year. (In later years you can choose it yourself, because there is a ballot.) We will give you the chance to tell us your preferred room rent for your first-year accommodation by completing a form which we will send to all 2015 entry offer-holders at the end of June.
Rooms offer a range of facilities and are of different sizes, so the rent charged varies to reflect this. Heating, electricity and cleaning are included, and ALL rooms in College are non-smoking. Facilities for self-catering are extremely limited, so students are encouraged to take advantage of the meals offered in Hall instead. Given notice, the Catering Manager can provide for those with particular dietary requirements for medical or religious reasons.
Students are asked to read and comply with the regulations in the College Accommodation Handbook
Examination Results
The College will receive the results of UK A-levels, STEP, and Scottish or IB examinations for candidates holding our conditional offers directly through UCAS, so it is not necessary to email or telephone us with these results. However, if you are taking other examinations (such as Irish Leaving Certificate) please do advise us of your results as soon as they are received.
We will be writing to you as soon as possible after we have been able to review all published exam results. We automatically look at the possibility of relaxing the conditions of candidates who narrowly miss their target. It is very important that you contact us immediately on the 13th August with a note of your UMS marks if this should happen.
You might like to look at the information published by the University at http://www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/whatnext.html
Around the end of August, all students whose places are confirmed will receive a Fresher's pack via the post (we regret it is not possible to send electronic versions). There will be a few forms enclosed which you must complete and return as soon as possible. If you know you will be away, please arrange for someone to receive the package on your behalf. It is acceptable for someone else to complete and return forms for you, as long as you are able to communicate your instructions to that person. Otherwise please let the Christ's College Admissions Office know that the return of your forms will be delayed.
Your pack will include, among other things, a letter from your personal Tutor, the location of your room and an extensive information booklet. The College Tutorial pages at /current-students/tutorial gives a lot of helpful information for when you arrive in College. Don't forget that, although this is a new experience for you, we are used to welcoming new students every year so you don't need to worry about missing any administrative details. We will contact you if anything needs doing.
Date of Arrival
Sunday 4th October 2015 is the date of arrival for most undergraduates. All new students must be in Cambridge and available to meet their Tutors by 3.00pm on Sunday 4th October. A buffet lunch will be available for all new students in Upper Hall for when you arrive. Dinner will be served in Hall at 7.30pm with an official College welcome from the Senior Tutor; for those who are interested, there will also be a short choral Chapel service with a welcome from the Chaplain beforehand at 6.00pm.
With the exception of students coming from overseas, later or earlier arrival is not normally possible. (Special arrangements will be made for those taking a compulsory pre-term course.) For students coming from outside the UK, it may be possible to arrive a day or two earlier, but Thursday 1st October is the very earliest. International students must contact st-assistant@christs.cam.ac.uk if they wish to arrange arrival between Thursday 1st October and Sunday 4th October.
When you arrive at the College, please report to the Porters in the Lodge at the Great Gate (St Andrew's Street). They will register your arrival and give you the key to your room.
A map and directions to the College are available. You should be aware that the traffic in and around Cambridge will be extremely heavy and much patience is required. Several hundred other students also will be trying to get into their colleges through streets which were laid out in medieval times!
Dates of Terms
This link takes you to the University of Cambridge Term dates. Students are expected to arrive in College no later than the weekend before the Tuesday on which Full Term starts and may leave over the weekend after the Friday on which Full Term ends.
The Terms are short and intense and absence from Cambridge during Term is inadvisable. You should certainly avoid making any advance commitment which would require absence during your first Term.
Codes of Practice and Policies
These may be found at /current-students/codes-practice-and-policies
Course Changes
Any proposed change of course from the one for which an undergraduate has been admitted can only be considered for implementation after his or her examinations have been taken at the end of the first year.
E-Mail and IT provision
All Cambridge students are allocated a Cambridge email address with their initials followed by a number in the form abc88@cam.ac.uk, the allocated address may be found from September at http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/linkpages/newcomers but you cannot collect your password until you come to Cambridge.
There is a great deal of helpful information about College IT provision at /current-students/computing
Motor Vehicles
Only in very exceptional circumstances is permission ever given to undergraduates to keep cars, motor-cycles or mopeds in Cambridge.
Musical Instruments and other electrical equipment
Musical instruments (and electrical equipment) may be used in College rooms only if permission has been given by your Tutor. Kettles, radios, normal hi-fi equipment and computers do not require special permission.